I went with the Katana Gen 3 head and love it. Bloom is a great addition. I kept my mk2 100 around for using it as the slave in a stereo configuration. Sounds amazing.
Bought this a couple of months ago as an introduction to amp heads for me. Have not been disappointed. I don't have a cabinet yet, but that hasn't really mattered with the built-in speaker and I know that when I do get a cabinet it will sound better. Then there's the fact that once I have the cabinet, there's a whole world of amp heads out there when I decide to "move up".
@@tigermoosearmy At home it sounds fine. Just keep in mind it's only a 5-inch speaker and not a cabinet. There's less bass than you would get with a larger speaker/cabinet, but I expected that. Other than that it sounds great. Just temper your expectations when it comes to bass and understand it's not going to be as good as a cabinet speaker.
Glad you covered this - there has been nothing about it that I can see out there. I'm pretty impressed with the Gen3's in general but the bloom really made it pop for me in the store - be interesting to see how it translates at home. I'd agree that it really helps the cleans and sort of takes the blanket off the amp and brings it to life (in the store). I should take delivery of my artist in a few hours and I can check it out at home. The Artist was the right move for me - I had a $250 point credit at MF so I only had to pay $300. Bigger cabs always sound better - better speaker - and far as the head goes I don't care for small speakers - tried it - I just don't connect with them. The one thing everyone seems to prefer that I don't far as the Artist goes is the front controls - I actually prefer the controls on top - easier to see when you are sitting or standing. I never orient the amp pointing directly at me - I like my amps on the ground to connect to the room.
With gen 3 coming out, I got a sweet discounted price on the gen 2 katana artist! I like it a lot, and I don’t see what the hype of wanting a tube amp is all about yet. I’m quite happy! I’m sure someday I’ll get a deluxe reverb or something, but it’s sooooo nice to not have to spend money on pedals
I sat in with local band last week. The other 2 guitarists use the Helix. They were very impressed with my humble little Boss GX100. Boss makes gear that sounds good. Now play guitar.
RUclips gear channels are weird. “The head is the best format for the katana” is based on having access to a bunch of high quality guitar cabs to run it through. Katana is, at its heart, an entry level product. Most dudes spending $400 on an amplifier don’t have a Mesa Boogie speaker cab they’re planning to run it through. If you have expensive cabs, you’re usually willing to pay more for an amp…
Agreed , its down to budget , speaker cabs can have a massive effect on your tone , I use a MK1 100 Katana for gigs and it's fine , at local rehearsal studio they had MK2 head into Marshall 4x12 , what a sound! Tubes sound / feel great but can be unreliable , over 40 years playing live Ive had 3 valve amps either die or catch fire ( plus they're heavy ) so Katana is ideal for my budget . Will wait for affordable second hand MK2 head on eBay at some point 😄
Just sold my MkII combo, and am thinking of going for this head. I'd use it with a Peavey 212 cab. I'd also use it, if it sounds good in that situation, as a studio amp for direct recording. I tried to do that with the MkII combo and couldn't get a decent recording sound from it, for whatever reason.
Great Video and great sounding amp. The Best Katana once again is the Artist Head or Combo with 112 WAZA speaker. I never get why more guitarists don’t buy them. Yes they are the most expensive of the line but so worth it and no where the cost of a tube amp. I’m not compatible to a fine tube amp but the Gen 3 is darn close and most KATANA’s make up for it in versatility.
Hi John, I didnt see the Boss description, however, bloom isnt generally heard for chords but for solos. the tone changes after picking the note, usually with a bend. Maybe thats not what Bosses description is however.
I found this which is a better simple typical description... I kind of think of it as a flower opening, it is the note opening into it's full harmonic potential.
Seems like the bloom adds deep lows and presence? Really would complement single coils, but overall seems to just make it sound more high fidelity. Just my observation.
The Bluetooth adapter can be used with any Gen 3 but has to be purchased separately for $50. It is a huge help to have... But it's by far the worst, most flaky Bluetooth implementation I've encountered. It fails to connect at all now on my Pixel phone, luckily I have my old phone with a cracked screen that connects most of the time, though I often have to reset the adapter and/or turn amp off and on. The phones SEE the adapter and it almost connects, then either just gives up silently or throws an error notification saying "unable to connect due to wrong de..." I have no clue what a "wrong de.." is. The message is truncated. I am otherwise loving the amp. I just wish they used the BT circuit from the katana GO. It works great, and the adapter costs a whole ½ the price of the GO (until they nuked it).
A Katana 100 1x12 Gen 3 costs less than the now 5 years old HX Stomp, yet the Katana has a cabinet, poweramp, and speakers included. Same for the Catalyst. Something isn't adding up... you're sacrificing something.
@@worthmoremusic I’ve got a Katana 50 mk2 and a Dual Cube XL, and enjoy them both. The Dual Cube has been a thoroughly pleasant surprise in terms of tone in the house - much bigger and fuller than I anticipated, and it sounds great direct into a PA too, so has become a really useful compact pedal platform amp head. Great option now that they’ve knocked it down to about half the original price.
The "Bloom" feature sounded pretty much like a boost. Louder is better, and sounds significantly different than the same thing at lower a volume, so hard to say how valuable the Bloom was. 🤷
The clean channel seems gainier than the previous versions even without the bloom. Would it be possible to get the speaker out and stereo phones out going together at the same time? I am think you could use the speaker out to monitor yourself on the stage and the stereo phones jack to send a stereo signal to front of house in essence getting a stereo rig while carrying only one amp. I know there were some limitations in the previous editions with this stuff.
Hi John, I am wondering if I put my multi effects processor (like GT1000, QC) into the "power amp in" jack of the katana artist, will the "BLOOM" button still active? It seems the BLOOM button is the effect for power amp.
@@JasonT-xp3kh quite the opposite, it was sold out since it was released and boss was never able to fulfill all the orders, nowadays its price on ebay and Reverb is almost DOUBLE as Boss made the official statement that they were discontinuing it and "redesign it" due to "lack of parts", But that statement lacks credibility as a big company as Boss never had to do that before and regardless of chip shortages the most likely explanation is that they realized their offered "too much for too cheap" and will re-release it at a higher price
@@JasonT-xp3kh No, I could never get one as it was sold out since the beginning and now they're asking ridiculous money for secnd-hand ones and even more for mint-unopened ones
It’s for acoustic and electro acoustic guitars. It doesn’t add an acoustic effect into an electric guitar signal. You can though go into the settings using the software and add an acoustic simulator onto one of your presets.
Hi, bought the Katana Artist Gen3 last week. Is there any way to turn BOOST, MOD, REVERB off or on on the amp itself via the coloured LED switches other than turning the knob for that effect all the way counter-clockwise to zero?. I know I can do this on my EX foot-controller but I would prefer, when I’m tweaking - to be able to switch an fx on or off without affecting the parameter. Is there an option where I can for example long-press one of those buttons just to turn the effect off/on? And which is the best place to submit firmware feature requests to BOSS?
I wish I knew what "bloom" is, in a technical sense. It's one of those things where you kind of know it when you hear it, but it's hard to put into words. For me, a quintessential bloom tone is Al Di Meola's lead tone on "Phantom" - ruclips.net/video/drbpAb8LRXU/видео.html. One of my favorite guitar tones ever! I wish I knew how he got that tone. I don't really hear anything like that with the Katana Bloom button. So maybe I don't know what bloom is after all! -Tom
I'm not quite understanding Boss's angle with all these different variations of the Katana? They should eliminate the 50watt models, and have only a head and combo at 100watts. It should come with the GAFC footswitch and a Bluetooth tablet for the Tone Studio included. All these added controls on the panel are stupid. They're going the wrong direction. They need to make the already endless tone shaping possibilities, easier to access. Not add analog controls to the panel, and call it a new model. Give us a completely ready to go system. Not divide every little feature into different models. I've got 2 mkii 212's, and a GAFC footswitch. The overall Katana experience is great. But to have to buy a printer adapter, and figure out how to use the Tone Studio with an Android device. Was a hassle. As cheap as that stuff is nowadays. Boss needs to rethink their approach. You should be able to open the box, and be up and running at full capacity, with all systems go. Within maybe 10min. maximum. Not have to go buy 3-4 more peices of gear first. It's bullshit really. Plain and simple. They're milking us.
I think with the bloom function they’re going for a kind of tape saturation effect. Sounds decent but certainly not as good as my mkii katana 100 with a strymon deco in the loop which I use for specifically that effect. I suppose the bloom is happening in the pre amp rather than power section.
The most overhyped amp in all of RUclips! Nothing wrong with it per se but at the end of the day it's just made of cheap plastic with wood shavings that were scrapped of the floor with a shovel and glued together to form a cabinet with a speaker that was just an afterthought. Nothing wrong with it at all BUT you do indeed get nothing more than what you paid for. Yes, I know that this example is for the head, so the speaker does not apply.
He's making it sing,tbh I've seen guys gig through friedmans and the tone sucks. The tone starts in the heart,then mind,then fingers... then amp my friend
“Per se.” Yeah; I’m that guy. I have a work buddy who has one and runs one of the older boss ME pedals through it and it always sounds great. I agree it’s overhyped. RUclipsrs talk about it like it’s the be all and end all…
I went with the Katana Gen 3 head and love it. Bloom is a great addition. I kept my mk2 100 around for using it as the slave in a stereo configuration. Sounds amazing.
Bought this a couple of months ago as an introduction to amp heads for me. Have not been disappointed. I don't have a cabinet yet, but that hasn't really mattered with the built-in speaker and I know that when I do get a cabinet it will sound better. Then there's the fact that once I have the cabinet, there's a whole world of amp heads out there when I decide to "move up".
How does the little 5 inch speaker sound in the room?
@@tigermoosearmy At home it sounds fine. Just keep in mind it's only a 5-inch speaker and not a cabinet. There's less bass than you would get with a larger speaker/cabinet, but I expected that.
Other than that it sounds great. Just temper your expectations when it comes to bass and understand it's not going to be as good as a cabinet speaker.
Glad you covered this - there has been nothing about it that I can see out there. I'm pretty impressed with the Gen3's in general but the bloom really made it pop for me in the store - be interesting to see how it translates at home. I'd agree that it really helps the cleans and sort of takes the blanket off the amp and brings it to life (in the store). I should take delivery of my artist in a few hours and I can check it out at home.
The Artist was the right move for me - I had a $250 point credit at MF so I only had to pay $300. Bigger cabs always sound better - better speaker - and far as the head goes I don't care for small speakers - tried it - I just don't connect with them.
The one thing everyone seems to prefer that I don't far as the Artist goes is the front controls - I actually prefer the controls on top - easier to see when you are sitting or standing. I never orient the amp pointing directly at me - I like my amps on the ground to connect to the room.
Yep, I agree. I would much rather have a katana head as my practice amp over a positive grid spark amp.
Practice amp? I've been gigging one for more than 2 years (artist) and I will never go back to tubes....
With gen 3 coming out, I got a sweet discounted price on the gen 2 katana artist! I like it a lot, and I don’t see what the hype of wanting a tube amp is all about yet. I’m quite happy! I’m sure someday I’ll get a deluxe reverb or something, but it’s sooooo nice to not have to spend money on pedals
Don't spend money on a tube amp if you don't need to. Tube amp user here
dont buy a DR, you already own the very best DR in the world, the artist
@@cruZerino1what’s a “DR”?
@@Nintendude2013 Deluxe Reverb
I sat in with local band last week. The other 2 guitarists use the Helix. They were very impressed with my humble little Boss GX100. Boss makes gear that sounds good. Now play guitar.
RUclips gear channels are weird. “The head is the best format for the katana” is based on having access to a bunch of high quality guitar cabs to run it through. Katana is, at its heart, an entry level product. Most dudes spending $400 on an amplifier don’t have a Mesa Boogie speaker cab they’re planning to run it through.
If you have expensive cabs, you’re usually willing to pay more for an amp…
Agreed , its down to budget , speaker cabs can have a massive effect on your tone , I use a MK1 100 Katana for gigs and it's fine , at local rehearsal studio they had MK2 head into Marshall 4x12 , what a sound! Tubes sound / feel great but can be unreliable , over 40 years playing live Ive had 3 valve amps either die or catch fire ( plus they're heavy ) so Katana is ideal for my budget . Will wait for affordable second hand MK2 head on eBay at some point 😄
Definitely thinking of getting the artist combo
The bloom feature strikes me as a subtle compression that expands with just a touch of bright boost. It's not really one effect, but two.
Just sold my MkII combo, and am thinking of going for this head. I'd use it with a Peavey 212 cab. I'd also use it, if it sounds good in that situation, as a studio amp for direct recording. I tried to do that with the MkII combo and couldn't get a decent recording sound from it, for whatever reason.
Great Video and great sounding amp. The Best Katana once again is the Artist Head or Combo with 112 WAZA speaker. I never get why more guitarists don’t buy them. Yes they are the most expensive of the line but so worth it and no where the cost of a tube amp. I’m not compatible to a fine tube amp but the Gen 3 is darn close and most KATANA’s make up for it in versatility.
Hi John, I didnt see the Boss description, however, bloom isnt generally heard for chords but for solos. the tone changes after picking the note, usually with a bend. Maybe thats not what Bosses description is however.
I found this which is a better simple typical description... I kind of think of it as a flower opening, it is the note opening into it's full harmonic potential.
Seems like the bloom adds deep lows and presence? Really would complement single coils, but overall seems to just make it sound more high fidelity. Just my observation.
The Bluetooth adapter can be used with any Gen 3 but has to be purchased separately for $50.
It is a huge help to have... But it's by far the worst, most flaky Bluetooth implementation I've encountered. It fails to connect at all now on my Pixel phone, luckily I have my old phone with a cracked screen that connects most of the time, though I often have to reset the adapter and/or turn amp off and on. The phones SEE the adapter and it almost connects, then either just gives up silently or throws an error notification saying "unable to connect due to wrong de..."
I have no clue what a "wrong de.." is. The message is truncated.
I am otherwise loving the amp. I just wish they used the BT circuit from the katana GO. It works great, and the adapter costs a whole ½ the price of the GO (until they nuked it).
I was just watching your video posted by LINE6 official.
Maybe a saturated power amp feel ?
"MORTAL KOMBAT!!"
Is there a significant difference from using the mkii with a boost pedal instead of purchasing the 3rd gen with bloom or pushed amp in terms of tone?
A Katana 100 1x12 Gen 3 costs less than the now 5 years old HX Stomp, yet the Katana has a cabinet, poweramp, and speakers included.
Same for the Catalyst.
Something isn't adding up... you're sacrificing something.
I think it's very subtle. I can't hear any discernible difference.
Waiting for Spark II as my next digital desktop amp. Will you try that one out too when it comes out?
Love the Katana Combos...even love the Boss Cube series.
Aren’t the cubes branded as Roland? I know it’s the same company…
@@worthmoremusic I’ve got a Katana 50 mk2 and a Dual Cube XL, and enjoy them both. The Dual Cube has been a thoroughly pleasant surprise in terms of tone in the house - much bigger and fuller than I anticipated, and it sounds great direct into a PA too, so has become a really useful compact pedal platform amp head. Great option now that they’ve knocked it down to about half the original price.
@@Newnodrogbob Not to be confused with the "Roland Cube," the Boss's Cube series is a separate thing.
@@worthmoremusic gotcha. I didn’t know such a thing existed. I’ll have to look it up.
The "Bloom" feature sounded pretty much like a boost. Louder is better, and sounds significantly different than the same thing at lower a volume, so hard to say how valuable the Bloom was. 🤷
The clean channel seems gainier than the previous versions even without the bloom.
Would it be possible to get the speaker out and stereo phones out going together at the same time? I am think you could use the speaker out to monitor yourself on the stage and the stereo phones jack to send a stereo signal to front of house in essence getting a stereo rig while carrying only one amp. I know there were some limitations in the previous editions with this stuff.
Better off miking it.
Is this the Head Artist , or the regular Head 100 watt ?
Hi John, I am wondering if I put my multi effects processor (like GT1000, QC) into the "power amp in" jack of the katana artist, will the "BLOOM" button still active? It seems the BLOOM button is the effect for power amp.
the bloom sounds like it adds a little reverb .
Can you comment on why Boss discontinued the Katana GO ?
It seems very strange from Boss to quietly discontinued it and NONE of all the youtubers who were PAID to review it has said anything!
I would imagine it probably didn't sell very well. That's the usual reason things get discontinued.
Very interesting indeed. Very good question 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉@@h.o.2078
@@JasonT-xp3kh quite the opposite, it was sold out since it was released and boss was never able to fulfill all the orders, nowadays its price on ebay and Reverb is almost DOUBLE as Boss made the official statement that they were discontinuing it and "redesign it" due to "lack of parts", But that statement lacks credibility as a big company as Boss never had to do that before and regardless of chip shortages the most likely explanation is that they realized their offered "too much for too cheap" and will re-release it at a higher price
@@JasonT-xp3kh No, I could never get one as it was sold out since the beginning and now they're asking ridiculous money for secnd-hand ones and even more for mint-unopened ones
What does the "Acoustic Amp Type" do? Is it intended for acoustic-electric guitars, or does it assist an electric guitar in sounding like an acoustic?
It’s for acoustic and electro acoustic guitars. It doesn’t add an acoustic effect into an electric guitar signal. You can though go into the settings using the software and add an acoustic simulator onto one of your presets.
It's a very clear channel with basically no distortion. You can plug an acoustic-electric in and it basically sounds like an acoustic guitar amp.
literally makes the katana an amp for an acoustic-electric. these things are crazy versatile. maybe the next iteration will have bass options.
Hi, bought the Katana Artist Gen3 last week. Is there any way to turn BOOST, MOD, REVERB off or on on the amp itself via the coloured LED switches other than turning the knob for that effect all the way counter-clockwise to zero?. I know I can do this on my EX foot-controller but I would prefer, when I’m tweaking - to be able to switch an fx on or off without affecting the parameter.
Is there an option where I can for example long-press one of those buttons just to turn the effect off/on?
And which is the best place to submit firmware feature requests to BOSS?
Did you leave the overhead camera set on blurry, on purpose? :)
Is it just Dolby atmos or something? Does seem to enhance things
Would the speaker in the amp head be enough for practice when using heavier tones ie rock and metal
I wish I knew what "bloom" is, in a technical sense. It's one of those things where you kind of know it when you hear it, but it's hard to put into words. For me, a quintessential bloom tone is Al Di Meola's lead tone on "Phantom" - ruclips.net/video/drbpAb8LRXU/видео.html. One of my favorite guitar tones ever! I wish I knew how he got that tone. I don't really hear anything like that with the Katana Bloom button. So maybe I don't know what bloom is after all! -Tom
I'm not quite understanding Boss's angle with all these different variations of the Katana? They should eliminate the 50watt models, and have only a head and combo at 100watts. It should come with the GAFC footswitch and a Bluetooth tablet for the Tone Studio included. All these added controls on the panel are stupid. They're going the wrong direction. They need to make the already endless tone shaping possibilities, easier to access. Not add analog controls to the panel, and call it a new model. Give us a completely ready to go system. Not divide every little feature into different models.
I've got 2 mkii 212's, and a GAFC footswitch. The overall Katana experience is great. But to have to buy a printer adapter, and figure out how to use the Tone Studio with an Android device. Was a hassle.
As cheap as that stuff is nowadays. Boss needs to rethink their approach. You should be able to open the box, and be up and running at full capacity, with all systems go. Within maybe 10min. maximum. Not have to go buy 3-4 more peices of gear first. It's bullshit really. Plain and simple. They're milking us.
Please, please, remember to turn off autofocus.
Bloom = pushed some more
I think with the bloom function they’re going for a kind of tape saturation effect. Sounds decent but certainly not as good as my mkii katana 100 with a strymon deco in the loop which I use for specifically that effect. I suppose the bloom is happening in the pre amp rather than power section.
Bloom circuit only controls the power output circuit. see last page of katana gen 3 owners guide Block diagram.
It should be illegal to sell Katana 50 without effects loop, it is just wrong, it is 2024, not 1974
And yes, always buy head version of anything.
Focus???
I can't really hear a difference.
Sound dull and boxy. It's why I got rid of the two Katanas I owned in the past. It took so much fiddling to get a nice tone I just gave up.
The most overhyped amp in all of RUclips! Nothing wrong with it per se but at the end of the day it's just made of cheap plastic with wood shavings that were scrapped of the floor with a shovel and glued together to form a cabinet with a speaker that was just an afterthought. Nothing wrong with it at all BUT you do indeed get nothing more than what you paid for. Yes, I know that this example is for the head, so the speaker does not apply.
Definitely, and a cheap modeler with good ir sounds better in my experience for home practice
He's making it sing,tbh I've seen guys gig through friedmans and the tone sucks. The tone starts in the heart,then mind,then fingers... then amp my friend
So you love it like millions of players.
Got it.
@revtimewest it's a tool. Personally I have a friedman steve stevens
“Per se.” Yeah; I’m that guy. I have a work buddy who has one and runs one of the older boss ME pedals through it and it always sounds great. I agree it’s overhyped. RUclipsrs talk about it like it’s the be all and end all…